2014 Health Accord

2014 Health Accord

The 2014 Health Accord is a negotiated agreement between the provincial, territorial and federal governments on funding for public health care into the future. The federal government has announced they will be unilaterally reducing funding for public health care after 2017, with major implications for our province.

“The very future of our health care system is at stake,” wrote NSGEU President Joan Jessome in a newspaper editorial. “If we don’t speak up now about what we know our health system needs, we’ll simply end up with what politicians tell us is best. Judging by what a lot of our politicians seem focused on these days’, economic fear-mongering, privatization, and tax cuts, I’m not entirely optimistic they’ll tell us things that are good for our health.”

Already, the health care system in Nova Scotia is being squeezed. District Health Authority budgets are being cut by three per cent, and further privatization isn’t being ruled out.

“We must all be vigilant,” says Jessome. “Citizens must write to their politicians demanding that the public system be maintained and strengthened, and health care workers must stand up against cuts to services that the public depends on.”